Being a new vegetarian is hard friends. I told my girlfriend I wanted to do it ages ago, and she said that’s no problem and she’d happily do it with me as she’d been thinking about it too. Long story short she’s been veggie for about six months and I hit my two week mark yesterday.

It’s mostly been okay, in the end I fell into it by accident. For ages I’ve been telling people this is the time, from tomorrow I’m a new woman! And when the next day I’d inevitably walked into the office with a bacon sandwich I didn’t even acknowledge I’d picked up there would certainly be a few friends to remind me of yesterday’s resolutions. But suddenly there was a point where I realised I’d done four days quite naturally and thought hey, why cut the streak? 

The first weak point was on day seven. I bought myself a veggie fast food cookbook because I was missing burgers and I was feeling pretty good about it. But suddenly, later in Tescos there were only ready made baked potatoes with bacon in and I flipped my shit. There was about half an hour of irrational irritation and anger ending in me proclaiming to my suffering other half: “fuck it I’m getting a chicken burger and I don’t care what you think or about the environment I’m done with this”. There was definitely a sheepish apology when I emerged later and happily ate my pasta with quorn chicken pieces.

But everything was better again the next day aside from an irregular amount of cheese in my diet (I swear I’ve been buying balls of mozzarella just to eat them whole it’s becoming a problem). The next week went smoothly until a couple of days ago where I had a really weirdly emotional reaction to thinking of my favourite Indian restaurant, back in Sunderland where I’m from, and how I’d never be able to get a sheek kebab from there ever again. 

Today’s a good day though. I have pesto pasta for lunch and I’m at the point where I don’t have those accidental almost slip ups where I pick up a chicken and stuffing sandwich then remember my morals and put it back. 

I’m mostly writing this because lots of people told me it’s an easy change going veggie and once you’ve got going you won’t miss meat. Let me tell you, it’s super hard to forget you can’t have Haribo or pork scratchings when you’ve eaten them your whole life, let alone craving tuna melts at lunch time while looking at the canteens lonely looking cheese sandwich with not enough filling. To top that off, I certainly miss eating meat – my friend and our Finance Assistant Alexis who sits next to me at work likes to remind me of the steaks she’s been eating on my behalf every other day. 

But as much as I might be having a bit of a moan, none of that is enough to make me stop. It’s not my diet change that’s wrong, it’s cafes and restaurants not having more than two appealing veggie options and the “abnormality” of not eating meat in our society. And honestly it’s different for everyone, I’m finding these first few weeks difficult but I have a friend who was swayed by arguments for veganism one day and never looked back.

Day fifteen: the only veggie thing in the vending machine this morning was a magnum and I’m still struggling without a Double Sausage and Egg McMuffin, but I’m feeling good. 

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